The invention relates to web packaging apparatus and methods transporting a web through a series of stations, for example forming a lower web into a component of a package receiving a food product and closed by an upper web.
Web packaging machines and methods are known in the prior art, for example U.S. Pat. No. 5,170,611, incorporated herein by reference. The apparatus packages a food product between upper and lower webs. A web transport conveyor transports the lower web through a series of stations which form the lower web into a component of a package at a forming station, and receive the food product at a loading station, and close the package with the upper web at a closing station. The present invention provides a pasteurization station pasteurizing the food product. In preferred form, the pasteurization station is between the loading station and the closing station and pasteurizes the food product in a simple effective manner readily and seamlessly incorporated into the packaging line.